Sportsfrog.com

My adopted hometown seems to be getting the hang of this hosting a major championship fight thing. The Roy Jones Jr. vs. Glen Johnson IBF light heavyweight fight will be the inaugural sporting event in the new FedEx Forum, and it has been fun having the boxers in town. Fight is live tonight on HBO. Writes Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

“‘You can make an argument that Memphis is the best fight city in the country,’ said Brian Young, founder of Prize Fight Boxing. Uh, Brian. How about Las Vegas? Atlantic City?

‘What has Atlantic City done recently?’ Young said. ‘We did over 31,000 for two Tyson fights. We set live gate records at Tyson-Lewis that will never be broken. We’re expecting at least 13,000 for this fight. It will be the largest crowd ever to see Roy Jones.’ The man is persuasive. Muhammad Ali would have a hard time arguing.

‘It’s getting to be that any time there’s a big fight,’ Young said, ‘people just expect that it will be in Las Vegas or Memphis.’ And to think, the first Tyson fight was supposed to be a one-shot deal, our own 15 seconds in the boxing spotlight. But a funny thing happened on the way to the FedExForum.

‘Just look at this,’ said Ronnie Shields, nodding at the crowd assembled on Beale Street to watch Friday afternoon’s weigh-in. Shields has trained multiple champions. He’s seen men step on scales before. ‘All this for a weigh-in?,’ he said. ‘This is huge.’ And nutty, too. Even before the Hawaiian Tropic babes showed up. There were fans from Ireland. And Germany. And London. And Chicago.”

Ah yes, come to Memphis and spread your dollars. You are very welcome here. You know, unless you are an Iraqi delegation come to learn about American democracy. Then we are apparently less cool, but, hey, no one is perfect.